China's space station Tiangong-1

The Tiangong-1, or "Heavenly Palace," will lay the foundation of China's maiden space station.

Wed Mar 3, 2010 10:59 AM ET | content provided by AFP

Weighing about 8.5 tons, the Tiangong-1 would provide a "safe room" for Chinese astronauts to live in and conduct research in zero gravity.

THE GIST:

China plans to launch its Tiangong-1 space module in 2011.
The plan was delayed a year due to "technical reasons."
After being placed in orbit, the Tiangong-1 would dock with the unmanned Shenzhou-8 spacecraft.

China has postponed the next step in its ambitious space station program until 2011 for technical reasons, state media said Wednesday.

China had originally planned to place the Tiangong-1 space module in orbit late this year and undertake experimental docking maneuvers in subsequent missions, Xinhua news agency cited rocket designer Qi Faren as saying.

But the initial launch has now been delayed by a year due to "technical reasons", Qi said, without elaborating.

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Qi was speaking to the media on the sidelines of a meeting of a legislative advisory body, which convened on Wednesday, two days before the start of the annual session of China's rubber-stamp parliament.

China became the third nation to put a man in space when Yang Liwei piloted the one-man Shenzhou-5 space mission in 2003.

In September 2008, the Shenzhou-7, piloted by three "taikonauts" or astronauts, carried out China's first space walk.

The Tiangong-1, or "Heavenly Palace," is seen as the building block of China's maiden space station.

Weighing about 8.5 tons, it would provide a "safe room" for Chinese astronauts to live in and conduct research in zero gravity.

After being placed in orbit, the Tiangong-1 would dock with the unmanned Shenzhou-8 spacecraft in the country's first space docking -- a feat to be controlled remotely by scientists on the ground.

Qi said Shenzhou-9 and Shenzhou-10, carrying two to three astronauts, would also dock with the orbiting module in successive years.

He said other key technologies being worked on in the space station program include the replenishment of propellant, air, water and food for the space module as well as a life support system.

The International Space Station began with the launch into orbit of the first station element, a Russian-built module, in 1998. The first full-time crew arrived two years later.

the first module from China's budding Tiangong (meaning "Heavenly Place") space station program. It was just revealed to the surprise and delight of Engadget Chinese during a TV special celebrating the Chinese New Year. The 8 ton module is scheduled to launch by 2010 with two more modules (Tiangong 2 and Tiangong 3) to follow by 2015 after which Taikonauts will begin to stay in orbit. For now, the endeavor is meant to prepare for automated docking trials and to establish a presence in space -- a move that will undoubtedly scare the hell out of hawkish members of western governments.

Oh man...another conspiracy theorist. The 9/11 theory, the moon walk all have pretty convincing arguments that can be disproven. Why most everything be a conspiracy whenever something substantial happens in space.

Time has already shown they lied about the first space walk. Honestly, the videos inside the SHENZHOU capsules look faked as well. The audio on them doesn't sound like they are in space and all they do is flip around those stupid script books.

Is it that hard to believe that news agencies write before important events take place? The incentive to be the first news outlet with a breaking story is huge. How about when Truman beat Dewey in the US presidential election, but papers jumped the gun and pusblished the opposite? It's called anticipation.

Only that this time Koji, it has a TRANSCRIPT of those astronauts in space before they even left the ground (the same transcripts which were published in Chinese press after the mission was over). Hence it's clear that the Chinese government had these transcripts ready for press before the launch even happened.

Is it that hard to believe that news agencies write before important events take place? The incentive to be the first news outlet with a breaking story is huge. How about when Truman beat Dewey in the US presidential election, but papers jumped the gun and pusblished the opposite? It's called anticipation.

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Wake up and smell the tea! They published the transcripts before they even left the ground. It was fake end of story. The real question now is has China ever really put a man into space. There would not really be a reason needed to fake a spacewalk if they could. The Shanzou space audio doesn't sound anything like a transmission coming from space and they never demonstrate a convincing zero g display. You certainly never seen taikonauts floating around the cabin or anything allowed to free float except that stupid notebook that looks like its on fishwire and never allowed more than 10cm from their hand.

Only that this time Koji, it has a TRANSCRIPT of those astronauts in space before they even left the ground (the same transcripts which were published in Chinese press after the mission was over). Hence it's clear that the Chinese government had these transcripts ready for press before the launch even happened.

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It is just one of the massive technical erros that happened in Chinese inefficient state media.

But it is not surprising that these transcripts were ready for the press before the launch even happened. During an important mission like this, what cosmonauts would say and do has been fixed way before the mission began. It is just like a procedure, they must follow it.